


In Sickness And In Health

by Higgles123



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27562861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higgles123/pseuds/Higgles123
Summary: Alfie comes home after a shitty day and the house is a state. He's not best pleased and takes his mood out on Ava.
Relationships: Alfie Solomons/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	In Sickness And In Health

Alfie climbed out of the car and growled when his shoe made a sickening squelch. Standing in dog shit was quite literally the icing on the proverbial cake of what had been a day from hell. Meeting after meeting with wankers would just wanted something for nothing and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He thought the day would never end and as the clock had neared closer to eight, he had packed up his diary and a few pieces of paperwork armed with blissful ideas of getting home to have a nice hot bath and an early night. It was long after dinner so the kids would already be in bed, and as much as he loved the little buggers he just wasn’t in the mood for their chitter chatter and arguing tonight. But as soon as he pushed open the front door, leaving his soiled shoes on the doorstep, he realised that his plan for a relaxed evening had been well and truly quashed.

“What the fuck?” he murmured under his breath.

The house was like a bomb site, and that was saying something coming from a man who had actually fought in a war and had seen firsthand the devastation that explosives could actually do. There were toys and clothes and food crumbs everywhere, the smell of shitty nappies radiated through the stagnant air and there was an almighty load of screaming coming the bathroom upstairs.

“Oh Alf, thank goodness you’re home,” Ava appeared at the top of the stairs looking bedraggled and exhausted. “I could really do with some help.”

“I can see that,” Alfie pulled a face. “What the fuck has happened here? This place is an absolute shit hole.”

“It’s not that bad,” Ava rolled her eyes. “The kids have been driving me mad all day and I’ve not had chance to get hardly anything done. Jacob and Hannah are both poorly and-“

“-I don’t wanna hear your shitty excuses, Ava. I’ve been at work all fuckin’ day, yeah, and I come home and the house looks like I’m back in the middle of the fuckin’ war.”

“Oh well I’m sorry that I’ve been rushed off my feet all day.”

“Rushed off your feet doin’ what exactly?” Alfie scoffed. “Not cleanin’ up this pigsty that’s for sure. The kids obviously aint been that poorly if they’ve managed to make all this mess everywhere.”

“I told you that Jacob and Hannah are poorly. Soraya and Raisa are fine and have been running amuck as you can see. The other two have been vomiting and shitting all day long so I’ve been back and forth to the bathroom all day with them and Jacob’s gone through so many nappies that I had to ask Mrs Iveson next door to run out and get me some more.”

“You should have phoned and told me if you couldn’t cope,” Alfie muttered, kicking a teddy out of the way as he headed towards the living room.

“I could cope just fine,” Ava shook her head at him in disgust. “And quite frankly I’m appalled at you, Alf, because what sort of Dad finds out two of his children are poorly and starts complaining about the state of the house rather than ask how said children even are?”

“How about a Dad whose had a shitty day and shouldn’t have to come home and start fuckin’ cleanin’ up cos his wife quite clearly can’t be arsed!” Alfie snapped angrily. Ava’s face fell and when her bottom lip began to wobble he reached for her with a remorseful expression. “Ava, love, I didn’t mean to-“

“-Fuck you, Alf,” she spat.

“Ava, I’m sorry, I’m just tired and I didn’t mean to lash out at you.”

“I don’t give a shit,” she muttered, grabbing her coat from the rack by the staircase and slipping her feet into a pair of shoes.

“Where you goin’?” Alfie shouted as she yanked open the front door.

“Out!” she called back. “Because if it’s so easy looking after two sick children at the same time as two healthy ones then you’ll be completely fine, won’t you?”

The door closed with a slam and the cuckoo clock on the wall threatened to fall down.

“Well that wasn’t very nice, Dad,” Raisa commented from the top of the stairs. Walking down slowly, she eyed Alfie with a look of disgust that mirrored her mother and when she was at his eye level, she stopped and crossed her arms. “Mum’s been so busy all day and you just waltz in and talk to her horribly.”

“And just who do you think _you’re_ talking to, Raisa Solomons?” Alfie raised an eyebrow at his eldest daughter. “I didn’t ask for your opinion and I don’t want it.”

“Well _Bubbe_ told me that sometimes we don’t want people’s opinions but that we need to hear them,” Raisa answered. “And this time you really needed to hear my opinion, Dad, because you were out of line.”

“And I think you’re bein’ out of line right now so why don’t you trot off to your room and shut your cheeky mouth, eh?”

Raisa, as hard faced as she was, did nothing more than shrug and take herself off to her bedroom as ordered. Alfie wasn’t surprised when he heard the bedroom door open again and he waited patiently for Raisa to attempt to get the last word in. Sadly though what left her mouth was not words… it was a great big pile of vomit.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Alfie was exhausted. It was a little after midnight and the children were all tucked up in bed, with sick bowls by their heads and tummies full of dry toast and paracetamol. Soraya was now the only one who somehow wasn’t poorly but Alfie doubted that she was going to be safe from illness for very much longer. Alfie was dozing off in the armchair, telling himself every few minutes that he was going to get up and clean the house which was even more of a mess now than it had been on his arrival home, but he just couldn’t summon up the energy to move. He’d been a parent for close to ten years, yet he was certain that he had never before witnessed so much sick and shit as he had tonight. It was like some sort of exorcism; fucking grim. The front door clicked open quietly and Alfie knew it was Ava; it wasn’t like he was expecting anyone else, but in the case that Sabini had sent someone to kill him, with the way he was feeling right about now he would probably beg them to do it in all honesty. He expected Ava to come into the living room but instead he could hear her shuffling about in the hallway tidying up the mess. Standing up with a groan he limped to the doorway.

“Stop that, love,” he murmured sleepily.

But Ava ignored him and continued gathering up clothes and toys in her arms until she couldn’t carry anything more. She made a point of huffing and sighing just to remind Alfie that she was definitely still upset with him, and if the past few hours had been anything to go by then she had every right because looking after sick children was no easy feat.

“Ava, I said stop,” he said a little more forcefully this time and grabbed her arms, knocking all of the items out of her hands.

“What did you do that for?” she huffed.

“Because it’s after midnight and it’s time for bed.”

“Oh and then you can wake up in the morning and start calling me a lazy bitch again,” she raised an eye brow at him.

“I never called you a lazy bitch, Ava,” Alfie tutted.

“You pretty much did, Alf.”

“Well I’m sorry, aint I?” he kissed her lips gently and took her by the hands. “I’m sorry that I was a right bastard and I’ve well and truly had my punishment, don’t you worry.”

“Are they ok? The kids?” Ava asked, leaning into Alfie, unable to stay mad at him any longer.

In truth, she had stopped being angry at him after the first hour but refused to give in and so had sat in the alleyway at the side of the house out of stubbornness. It had been freezing cold and in hindsight she should have just gone to Ollie and Miriam’s but she didn’t want to be too far away from the children just in case.

“Raisa’s sick now,” Alfie said. “Jacob and Hannah seem to be gettin’ over the worst of it now though.”

“I’m glad,” Ava let out an exhausted sigh. “And as sorry as I am for Raisa, at least she won’t be able to mouth off at me for a few hours.”

“Oh she gave it a good go before bed still,” Alfie guffawed. “She’s such a madam; she definitely gets it off your sisters.”

“You’re telling me,” Ava chuckled. “I am sorry you know that the house is such a state. I really did try and get on top of it but it just didn’t happen.”

“No, _I’m_ sorry,” Alfie kissed the top of her head. “Now what do you say we get into bed and have a little snuggle? We can forget the state of the place and just pray the kids sleep all night?”

Ava nodded but then her face fell suddenly. She licked at her lips and pursed them as though she was sucking on a bitter lemon, and before Alfie was about to ask her what was wrong she took off running for the kitchen and promptly threw up in the sink.

“Great,” Alfie muttered. “Just fuckin’ great.”

Not only were his kids sick but now too was his wife. He considered sneaking out of the house and sleeping in the office all night where there were no germs, but deciding he was probably already infected he went to help Ava get cleaned up.

“Sorry, Alf,” she murmured as he wiped her face with a damp cloth. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Course I do; I made vows didn’t I?” he reassured her a second before she threw up again. “In sickness and in health.”

And he meant it.


End file.
